Follow-up on District H Voting

Kuff elaborates some on the District H Early Voting issue that looks like it had an impact on the way the votes came in last Saturday. Having read Marc Campos' take on the matter, it's still kinda interesting.

Normally, there tends to be a stereotype that certain voters will always find a way to vote no matter what. Namely, the wealthier, whiter voters from the better parts of town. District H is definitely comprised most notably of two very different parts of town - the wealthier, whiter Heights and the less wealthy, more Hispanic northside.

It could be argued that those Heights voters did come out to vote, just holding off the decision until E-day. And I don't doubt that this accounts for a large portion of people that would have otherwise voted in the election. But I think we have to accept that there is also some portion that didn't get to vote due to lack of a convenient early vote location.

This isn't the first time this matter has been addressed locally. Kuff also noted in 2006 that State Rep candidate Dot Nelson-Turnier raised some questions about the location of early vote locations in HD150. In that contest, the outcome really wasn't in much doubt. So it might just have been easier to dismiss it as just a longshot candidate making noise.

But if there's really concern to be had over the thought of people not having an adequate opportunity to vote, it shouldn't just be because it happens to wealthier, whiter voters of Harris County. It should be reviewed more systematically throughout the county.

I realize that, at some point, resources are stretched if you have say, a few hundred early vote locations. I don't know what the correct answer is off the top of my head, but for now, it may just be that "more" is the operative answer.

Beyond Harris, or even suburban counties, there are other issues. In many rural counties, for instance, the only early vote location is the county courthouse. And the hours are generally awful by the standard we're used to in the big urbans. Given that the majority party in the lege seems to think that the biggest problem in the world is that too many people are offering their opinion on election day, I might be inclined to point out that one means of alleviating that perception would be to find ways to demonstrate that you actually want people to vote. Granted, that party seems to be doing a dreadful job of it so far in this current session.